Announcement

Cruzeiro & Internacional Clinch MRL Titles!

A hectic MRL weekend for Team Chicago Academy teams saw two of them clinch their Division Titles after convincing victories.

Team Chicago Academy-Internacional defeated Waza from Michigan 4-1 to secure its U17 First Division title and promotion to the U18 Premier Division II next Fall.

Only needing a tie to secure the title, Internacional quickly took care of business with 2 great goals in the opening 20 minutes of the first half. 6 Minutes in Sam O’Brien found Miranda Lambert who drove to the endline and delivered a perfect, whipped cross with her left foot that Kiley Czerwinski ran onto and hammered home in the far post side-netting. 10 minutes later Jori Romano split the Waza midfield with a diagonal pass to Alena Sidwell, and Alena played a great through ball into Maddie Pokora’s perfectly timed run from the right flank. Maddie calmly beat the GK for the eventual game-winner.

Internacional should have been up by 3-4 goals at the half, but as it often happens in soccer, instead Waza got a goal back early in the 2nd half to make it interesting. With 15 minutes left Sam O’Brien put the game out of reach when she slammed home a rebound off the Waza keeper at the back post. And with 5 minutes left Sam scored her second on an Olimpico directly off her corner kick.

Internacional is now 6-0-0 in MRL play and just has one final game left against Crystal Lake Force.

Team Chicago Academy-Cruzeiro also needed a tie to clinch the title in its U14 Premier Division Qualification group. Hosting Libertyville 1974 at Benedictine University at 8am on Sunday morning was a very difficult task as the field was still frozen and extremely slippery in the first half. However, Kerry Abello gave Cruzeiro a 1-0 lead halfway through the first half on a free kick, and the team was able to ride that lead into halftime.

For the 2nd half it was a transformed Cruzeiro team that showed up. The field had thawed, and the Cruzeiro girls stepped up their intensity, and very quickly they established a consistent possession game in the Libertyville half. 10 minutes in Kerry Abello doubled the lead from Jordan King and Emma Rydholm. And 8 minutes later she got her 3rd to put the game thoroughly out of reach from Erin Sweda’s assist. With 10 minutes to go Kerry made it 4-0 to finish off a perfect attack when Erin Sweda split the Libertyville midfield with a diagonal pass to Alyssa Bombacino, who in turn played another perfectly weighted diagonal ball to Kerry Abello, and she calmly far-posted her finish.

Cruzeiro finished with a 5-1-1 record, 16 points, and an impressive 16-2 goal difference. Defensively the girls have really matured this season, and strong play by the entire back-line and the GKs Bailee Witt and Anna Aubuchon has been a critical part of the division title.

Team Chicago Academy-Brasilia got a fantastic result this weekend by taking down Alliance FC the Michigan U15 State Cup Champions by a score of 4-2.

Going into the game Alliance was in first place in the MRL Premier I Division. Alliance opened the scoring in the first half finishing a goal off a rebound. Brasilia started to gain a little more possession and it was a great run by Jade Eriksen-Russo that lead to the equalizer. Jade received a ball and drove to the Alliance’s end-line and served a ball to the near post that Jasmine Ruiz slotted past the keeper. Great timing and poise allowed for this great combination to take place.

Going into the second half presented some additional challenges with Brasilia playing two games in two days with only twelve healthy players. The second half started off with Alliance applying a lot of pressure which led to their second goal. Down 2-1 Brasilia fought back and ran off three goals in about a fifteen minute span to secure the result. The second goal came off Jasmine Ruiz’s corner. She drove it into the box and Makenna Schoolman hit the ball toward the back post which found Nicole Mondi who snapped a header past the keeper to tie things at 2-2.

With the second goal Brasilia started to gain more momentum and Maddie Lambert made a penetrating run into the final third and took a shot from the top of the box that deflected off an Alliance player. Off the deflection Safia Hannin collected the ball and went in and chipped the keeper to make it 3-2. The final goal came off a nice combination that started with Abby Severson serving a ball into the box that Jasmine touched on to Safia who placed her second goal of the match past the keeper. The back four and Lupe Anguiano shut things down in the remaining minutes to preserve the win.

Brasilia finishes its MRL league play with a match versus TNT in Kalamazoo, Michigan this Saturday.

Team Chicago Academy-Bahia lost a close game to Eclipse in the U13 MRL Premier Division Qualification group, but is still in complete control of its own destiny in terms of Premier Division qualification for the Spring 2014.

Bahia is hosting Madison 56s this Saturday at 1pm at Commissioner’s Park and with a win Bahia will finish either 3rd or 4th in the group and secure a spot in the Premier I Division this upcoming Spring.